One dead, 9 missing as boat carrying 27 capsizes in UP's Bijnor

BIJNOR: A boat ferrying around 27 villagers, mostly women, capsized in the overflowing Ganga. The incident happened near Daivalgarh village in Bijnor on Friday morning around 11.30am when villagers were fetching fodder for their livestock from the farm fields located on the other side of the river. As of now 17 persons were recovered alive within a range as far as 6 km to 10 km from the accident site but survived because they knew swimming.
Majority of those missing are the women were married in the village and did not know the art of swimming.Taking cognizance of the matter, CM Yogi has directed the district administration to begin rescue operation on a war footing.
According to villagers, around 27 villagers including 8 male and rest of the female, were in a boat and on the way to their houses from the fields when the incident took place. When they departed for the fields, there was around one lakh cusec water in the Ganges. It had jumped up to 1.32 lakh cusec water while they were returning their home. According to villagers, they were not informed about the rising level of the Ganges.

After loading the fodder, villagers when reached near their village Daibalgarh, the boat started rocking on the strong waves of the river current. It became unbalanced and capsized in the overflowing river. The boat carried people of three villages including Raarampur, Chahadwala in Daibalgarh. All these villagers are close to each other.
After the accident, all the villagers were washed away in the Ganga water. The current was so strong that it took them with it many km away from the spot within one and two hours.
After getting wind of the incident, there was hue and cry in the surrounding villages. Scores of villagers came to the rescue of the drowning villagers. Though the news spread in the region like wildfire the administration reached the spot hours after and but they had no rescue equipment and measures. Only villagers brought the drowning people to the safe spot. Around 17 villagers were recovered by the villagers. Most of them came out the river of their own as they knew the swimming and some of them took help of the bundles of the grass (fodder) which were floating on the river.
After getting information, the administration came into action and deployed ambulances to carry the affected villagers to the hospital. Around two women including Jyoti and Ramwati of Razaramour village were sent to the district hospital for treatment. Condition one of two is stated critical.
Police and administration found a body of a woman-Nagani(50) for Barrage around 10km from the incident spot. Her body was sent to the district hospital for post-mortem.
The rescue operation was on and around 9 villagers all females are still missing. NDRF team. Villagers and administration are searching for them in Ganga. Few boats were also deployed there for the operation.
District magistrate, Atal Rai, ADM, Avdhesh Mishra, SDM Bijnor-Brijesh Singh, superintendent of police Umesh Singh, CO, Mahesh Kumar etc officers were on the spot to know the situation.
Giving the details, district magistrate, Atal Rai, said, “We have managed to rescue around 17 villagers with the help of villagers. PAC and NDRF have been deployed at the spot. A body of a woman-Nagini was recovered from the river. The rescue operation is on. Around 9 to 10 villagers are missing so far. Out of these, five belong to one family and we are searching for them. All of them are women. All the villagers had gone to fetch fodder of the cattle when the incident occurred.”